Sounds and sound thinking in |xam-ka !au: ���These are those to which I am listening with all my ears���

What is it about?

ABSTRACT: This paper questions preconceptions that situate the |xam in a Stone Age past where they can be objectified by a timeless gaze. From such appropriations and (miss)-representation the |xam emerge either as shamans or victims (Solomon 2014: 333; Moran 2009: 7) or as the quintessential proto-scientists (Jive Media 2015). We explore instead the expressive culture of the |xam and describe its significance as ‘applied history’ for people’s lives in the present (Legassick 2016). Our investigation follows two routes; firstly, via notions of vibration, sound and rock engravings as they remain available for intermedial comparison in the archaeological and ethnographic records. Secondly, we consider the complex ontological instabilities and continuities in an oral tradition by focusing on !khwa: – rain potency (Hollmann 2004: 129–131; Morris 2002: 154–191). From this we demonstrate how cultural literacy, with no direct written form, is translated from an extinct |xam language and culture and finds meaningful leverage among present-day descendants of the |xam who are genetically extant but now speak another language, Afrikaans.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT Sounds produced by bells and rock gongs were linked in the |xam language. There was magic power in the ringing sound of certain rocks such that they were deemed instrumental in the manipulation of rain. Rain still influences the lifeworld of people living in the semi-desert Karoo region, including descendants of the |xam who can no longer speak nor understand |xam since the language is now extinct. Nevertheless, beliefs about water sources and the hydrological cycle are retained and continue to animate ideas about the rain. In this paper we suggest that water animals and rain snakes are better understood as manifestations of holistic thinking that places emphasis on relationship and relatedness. Once thought quaint or worthless these ideas, communicated through stories and rock depictions, appear ever relevant in a region beset by climate change and the challenge that Fracking poses for the underground water system of the region.